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Commentary: Truth blown away in sugarcoated 'Gone With the Wind'
sacbee ^ | 11-13-04

Posted on 11/13/2004 11:12:00 AM PST by LouAvul

....snip......

Based on Margaret Mitchell's hugely popular novel, producer David O. Selznick's four-hour epic tale of the American South during slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction is the all-time box-office champion.

.......snip........

Considering its financial success and critical acclaim, "Gone With the Wind" may be the most famous movie ever made.

It's also a lie.

......snip.........

Along with D.W. Griffith's technically innovative but ethically reprehensible "The Birth of a Nation" (from 1915), which portrayed the Ku Klux Klan as heroic, "GWTW" presents a picture of the pre-Civil War South in which slavery is a noble institution and slaves are content with their status.

Furthermore, it puts forth an image of Reconstruction as one in which freed blacks, the occupying Union army, Southern "scalawags" and Northern "carpetbaggers" inflict great harm on the defeated South, which is saved - along with the honor of Southern womanhood - by the bravery of KKK-like vigilantes.

To his credit, Selznick did eliminate some of the most egregious racism in Mitchell's novel, including the frequent use of the N-word, and downplayed the role of the KKK, compared with "Birth of a Nation," by showing no hooded vigilantes.

......snip.........

One can say that "GWTW" was a product of its times, when racial segregation was still the law of the South and a common practice in the North, and shouldn't be judged by today's political and moral standards. And it's true that most historical scholarship prior to the 1950s, like the movie, also portrayed slavery as a relatively benign institution and Reconstruction as unequivocally evil.

.....snip.........

Or as William L. Patterson of the Chicago Defender succinctly wrote: "('Gone With the Wind' is a) weapon of terror against black America."

(Excerpt) Read more at sacticket.com ...


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: curly; dixie; gwtw; larry; moe; moviereview
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To: capitan_refugio
Exactly how many times did I write "close personal friend"? The correct answer is, "What is NONE?"

And exactly how many times did you claim that Taney was a neighbor of Merryman's, which we now know to be false? Several dozen. In fact you are still claiming it even though you have not the slightest shred of credible evidence and even though it has been shown that Taney and Merryman had residences that were several miles away from each other. Your response to that fact is that their great grandmother's inlaws are buried in the same cemetary!

2,361 posted on 12/05/2004 6:02:34 PM PST by GOPcapitalist ("Marxism finds it easy to ally with Islamic zealotism" - Ludwig von Mises)
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To: bushpilot
Yes, he is the guy who caused millions of southerners a fair degree of misfortune for about a century to follow.

His last words were, "Tell my mother I die for my country" and "Useless."

What a wimp.

2,362 posted on 12/05/2004 6:06:08 PM PST by capitan_refugio
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To: GOPcapitalist
I quoted Rehnquist, accurately, concerning the relationship between Merryman and Taney. You only complain about the Times quotation, but are unable to refute it.

They were the product of Maryland aristocratic society. Of course they knew each other and were friends. Taney should have recused himself and let another Federal Judge handle the case. As it was, he embarrassed himself with his partisan showboating.

2,363 posted on 12/05/2004 6:13:19 PM PST by capitan_refugio
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To: capitan_refugio
Exactly how many times did I write "close personal friend"?

No, you wrote: "Was Merryman a "personal friend of Taney"? You have provided nothing to refute the claim and I have provided a list of reasons to believe that such was quite likely the case" in post 2173.

Same difference. Face the facts. You lied. You got caught. You have yet to provide one iota of evidence that Chief Justice Taney and John Merryman even knew each other. You and your stablemates have the same tack on everything.

2,364 posted on 12/05/2004 6:17:56 PM PST by 4CJ (Laissez les bon FReeps rouler)
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To: capitan_refugio
They were the product of Maryland aristocratic society. Of course they knew each other and were friends.

PROVE IT. It should be simple - a letter from Taney to Merryman or vice-versa. A cewnsus showing them living with a few blocks - not 23 miles might help. Chief Justice Taney and Merry lived in the same state - that's the extent of their relationship.

2,365 posted on 12/05/2004 6:20:39 PM PST by 4CJ (Laissez les bon FReeps rouler)
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To: capitan_refugio
Yes, he is the guy who caused millions of southerners a fair degree of misfortune for about a century to follow.

He did nothing. The yankee congressional idiots were the problem.

2,366 posted on 12/05/2004 6:23:20 PM PST by 4CJ (Laissez les bon FReeps rouler)
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To: 4ConservativeJustices

Cewnsus? Southernspeak ;o)


2,367 posted on 12/05/2004 6:25:47 PM PST by 4CJ (Laissez les bon FReeps rouler)
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Comment #2,368 Removed by Moderator

Comment #2,369 Removed by Moderator

To: capitan_refugio
I quoted Rehnquist, accurately, concerning the relationship between Merryman and Taney.

Incorrect. You purported that Rehnquist had cited the passage as a critique of Taney when in fact he was only demonstrating northern newspaper opinion. You then subsequently tried to pass off the Times quote as a news article when in fact it was an editorial.

You only complain about the Times quotation, but are unable to refute it.

Incorrect again. The Times editorial falsely claimed that Taney and Merryman were neighbors. This is refuted by the documented fact that Merryman lived in Cockeysville for virtually all of his life while Taney never lived anywhere near Cockeysville at any time in his life.

They were the product of Maryland aristocratic society.

They were products of two different eras in time of Maryland society. Taney was over 80 years old and Merryman was in his 30's.

Of course they knew each other and were friends

...a claim that you have never evidenced and never substantiated.

2,370 posted on 12/05/2004 7:52:20 PM PST by GOPcapitalist ("Marxism finds it easy to ally with Islamic zealotism" - Ludwig von Mises)
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To: 4ConservativeJustices
Chief Justice Taney and Merry lived in the same state - that's the extent of their relationship.

No! Wait! Don't forget that Taney's mother-in-law's great uncle's niece Gertrude Tawney Higginbotham is buried in the same cemetary as Olaf Merriman, the bastard son of Merryman's great great great grandfather's stepdaughter from his third marriage! If that doesn't make Taney and Merryman friends I don't know what else can!

2,371 posted on 12/05/2004 7:57:30 PM PST by GOPcapitalist ("Marxism finds it easy to ally with Islamic zealotism" - Ludwig von Mises)
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Comment #2,372 Removed by Moderator

To: 4ConservativeJustices

I wrote nothing about "closeness" - nor did Rehnquist.
You were exagerating.


2,373 posted on 12/05/2004 10:43:46 PM PST by capitan_refugio
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To: 4ConservativeJustices
"[John Wilkes Booth] did nothing. The yankee congressional idiots were the problem.

You seem to forget who lost, boy.

And Booth's assassination of the President gave the Radical Reconstructionists a huge opportunity. Lincoln certainly would have had a more moderate policy.

2,374 posted on 12/05/2004 11:11:22 PM PST by capitan_refugio
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To: bushpilot
"As the barn fire roared higher and higher, [Lt. Edward] Doherty, [Lt. Everton] Conger, and [Lt. Luther] Baker pulled the fatally wounded man free. 'Tell mother I die for my country,' Booth whispered in Conger's ear. They carried him up to the porch of Garrett's house, still alive but paralyzed his hands 'useless' now, he said, 'useless.' They gave him water to drink, turned him on his side three times, emptied out the contents of his pockets, and listened to him beg to be killed mercifully."

Booth got off easy, pithed like a laboratory frog. Many of his fellow assassins and conspirators didn't fare as well.

2,375 posted on 12/05/2004 11:27:26 PM PST by capitan_refugio
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To: GOPcapitalist
"The Times editorial falsely claimed that Taney and Merryman were neighbors. This is refuted by the documented fact that Merryman lived in Cockeysville for virtually all of his life while Taney never lived anywhere near Cockeysville at any time in his life."

Shoddy analysis on your part. The census only provides information on the principal residence. It does not preclude other residences.

2,376 posted on 12/05/2004 11:38:21 PM PST by capitan_refugio
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To: capitan_refugio; nolu chan; 4ConservativeJustices
Shoddy analysis on your part. The census only provides information on the principal residence.

If you had paid attention and were honest, you would note that other residences in addition to the census one were accounted for. Taney's residence when he was in Baltimore - his daughter's house downtown - was identified through his memoirs and other biographies even though his official residence was in Washington.

Merryman, on the other hand, is only associated with one residence - both in the census and in other documents. That residence is in Cockeysville and he evidently spent most if not all of his time there, it having been the location where Lincoln's thugs went looking for him and the location where they found him. Seeing as you have produced no evidence that he had any other residence at all, no reason exists to doubt the evidence that has been provided showing that he and Taney were NOT neighbors.

It does not preclude other residences.

Using that same illogic, the fact that you live in a suburban republican region of California does not preclude you from also having a one bedroom flat above a lesbian biker bar in San Francisco. That noted, would it be fair of me to say that you're a friend and neighbor from the same state of some short haired dyke named Shambo who frequents the establishment below the newly presumed and non-precluded second residence you maintain in Haight-Ashbury?

2,377 posted on 12/05/2004 11:52:07 PM PST by GOPcapitalist ("Marxism finds it easy to ally with Islamic zealotism" - Ludwig von Mises)
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To: GOPcapitalist
"Using that same illogic, the fact that you live in a suburban republican region of California does not preclude you from also having a one bedroom flat above a lesbian biker bar in San Francisco. That noted, would it be fair of me to say that you're a friend and neighbor from the same state of some short haired dyke named Shambo who frequents the establishment below the newly presumed and non-precluded second residence you maintain in Haight-Ashbury?"

You really shouldn't talk about your mother that way. After all, she didn't abort you when she had the chance.

2,378 posted on 12/06/2004 12:25:12 AM PST by capitan_refugio
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To: capitan_refugio

Was the story of Lincoln and Derickson in Playgirl?


2,379 posted on 12/06/2004 12:26:18 AM PST by nolu chan
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To: nolu chan; Non-Sequitur
It's funny how you and GOPc always seem to get some homosexual content into your posts. Is there something you two aren't telling use? About an old ex-military poofter and latest young fling? LOL!

(N-S: I think you made a similar observation some time ago. Odd behavior, don't you think?)

2,380 posted on 12/06/2004 12:34:26 AM PST by capitan_refugio
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